Portland Observer, April 22, 1982 Page 5
K in d erg a rten ro u n d -u p s for children entering school next fall for the
first time, A p ril 19-30 in Portland Public Schools. Parents uncertain o f
their neighborhood school should call 249-0730 for boundary information.
Questions about the Early Childhood Education Centers should be directed
to Bob Harold, principal o f Eliot School, 288-3361, and questions about in
dividual programs should be directed to the local school principal. For
further information please contact Bob Harold, 288-3361, or Janet Smith,
249-0730.
Washington Hotline
by Congressman Ron Wyden
Q. This week President Reagan
outlined a proposal that would p ro
vide tuition lax credits to parents o f
children who attend private and pa
rochial schools. What do you think
Of this proposal?
A . I am very concerned— and for
a number o f reasons.
Prob ab ly the most im p o rtan t is
the issue o f budgetary fairness. Just
a few short months ago, the Presi
dent called for billions o f dollars o f
cuts in student loans and funds for
public education. He said the move
was necessary to help reduce the
federal deficit.
N ow the President is calling for
tuition tax credits— a proposal that
the Congressional Budget Office has
estimated will cost the government
more than $1 b illio n , and benefit
only a small segment o f our popula
tion.
Fairness should be the guiding
principle in our budgeting process.
There is clearly no fairness in a bud
get that places the brunt o f educa
tion cuts on the handicapped, low-
incom e and o th er special groups
while providing tax credits for those
who can afford private schooling.
I am also concerned about what
the provision o f tuition tax credits
w ould mean fo r lo cal c o n tro l o f
schools. Federal laws have a way o f
sprouting fed eral strings. A n d I
don’t think any o f us want any more
federal intrusion into local affairs
than necesary.
Q. W hat do you think about the
President's p ro p o sal to dism antle
the D epartm ent o f Education and
dism antlem ent p la n . The alleged
savings realized by dismantling the
department and setting up the foun
dation are premised on first making
drastic and serious cuts in education
programs— cuts that w ill deny the
handicapped and other special stu
dents access to a quality educaion,
cuts that w ill deny m any Oregon
teenagers the chance to attend col
lege and pursue a professional car
eer.
I am the firs t person to say we
need to cut the fat out o f the federal
budget. But the Department o f Edu
cation is not fat, it is muscle— mus
cle we need to help ensure a solid,
q u ality education system in this
country, and provide our children
with the training they need to get a
job and get ahead.
p u t a F oundation f o r E d u catio n al
Assistance In Its place?
A . I thin k it w ould be a serious
m istake to dism an tle the D e p a rt
ment o f Education before it has had
time to prove itself.
Before the Department o f Educa
tion came into being in 1980, there
were more than 130 education pro
grams scattered throughout the fed
eral bureaucracy. Today, those pro
grams are consolidated under one
roof— thus providing accountability
and saving time, money and d u pli
cation. T o abolish the department
now , when it is just beginning to
realize its full p otential, would be
nothing short o f foolish.
In a d d itio n , taxpayers should
beware o f the A d m in is tra tio n ’ s
promises o f cost-savings under the
Boise School is having a reunion on Friday, M ay 14, for all staff and
students, past and present, from 1927-1982. There will be food, entertain
ment, slied show, nostalgia exhibit. Former Boise students are requested to
contact the school, 288-6309,
Impact of mill closures hits families
E U G E N E — M ill closures in small
Oregon towns are creating profound
social changes, according to two
University o f Oregon researchers.
Using alcohol consumption and
child abuse as indicators o f the
mental well-being o f a community,
Ed Weeks and Sandra Drengacz,
both o f the Wallace School o f Com
munity Service and Public A ffairs,
are documenting the societal and in
dividual problems caused by the clo
sure o f wood products industry
mills in a dozen rural Oregon towns.
Seven others not experiencing
closures were studied for compari
son.
"W hen a plant closes, the ecology
o f the entire community is disrupt
ed,** says Weeks, an assistant pro
fessor and adviser for Drengacz, a
graduate student. "Th e impact on a
small community may be devastat
ing.”
Beyond providing direct financial
support to m ill workers and their
fam ilies, the economy upholds the
mental well-being o f the individual
and the community.
’ ’The economy provides much
more than purchasing p o w er,”
Weeks explains. " I t provides the
participants their social roles, grants
security and sets the overall rhythm
o f the community."
D isru ptio n o f the economy
produces significant behavorial
changes in some community mem
bers, the researchers have found.
"W h e n a plant closes, there is a
real dislocation in a person's life ,”
says Weeks. " T h e re is an ecology
we each have in our own lives, and
when that’s disturbed, there are lots
o f consequences.” T w o o f those
consequences are increased alcohol
consumption and child abuse.
Using Oregon L iq u o r C o n tro l
Commission statistics on the dollar
value o f spirits sold in a community,
Weeks and Drengacz found a high
correlation between m ill closures
and alcohol consumption.
They based their study on these
data because "alcohol consumption
rates can serve as a proxy measure
for the level o f stress being experi
enced,” Weeks says. Indeed, high
levels o f alcohol consumption have
been shown to lead to numerous so
cial problems including automobile
accidents and spouse and child
abuse.
One o f the 12 communities stud
ied by the researchers was Prin e
v ille , where the wood products
industry provides employment for
97 per cent o f the tow n’s manufac
turing employees. Three Prineville
mills closed or indefinitely laid o ff
employees in 1980.
Weeks described the impact o f the
closures to the Oregon Senate’s
Labor Subcommittee in June 1981.
"T h e economic shocks occurring
at the end o f A p ril, June and Sep
tember 1980 are followed by sharp
increases in the sales o f distilled
spirits o f about 20 per cent," he tes
tifie d . " A small com m unity has
taken three strong blows to the
body, never quite recovering before
the next blow arrives in the form o f
a short corporate announcement be
ginning with the phrase, *We regret
having to announce. . . . ’ ”
Weeks found alcohol consump
tion increased similarly in the other
11 towns.
A nother m ark o f com m unity
stress is the level o f child abuse.
“ D ata on the incidence o f child
abuse goes further in illustrating the
tragic consequences o f community
economic shock,” Weeks states.
Using data from the Oregon C hil
dren’s Services Division, Weeks and
Drengacz studied child abuse in
Douglas county, where the wood
products industry accounts fo r 83
per cent o f all m anufacturing em
ployees.
Beginning in summer 1980, re
ported child abuse rose as mills laid
o ff or terminated workers. The in
crease "suggests one consequence o f
plant closures is increased fam ily
stress which, in some instances, re
sults in the physical abuse o f chil
dren,” reports Weeks.
M ill closures are particularly hard
on older workers, too.
Using a study conducted by the
Oregon State Employment Division
on a closed P o rtlan d m ill, Weeks
found that " th e m ill closure was
catastrophic for the older w orker.”
Eight months after the m ill closed,
the unemployment rate for workers
33 to 64 years old who were actively
seeking work was 42 per cent, the
study reported.
Weeks and Drengacz have studied
other indicators o f com m unity
stress. These include nursing home
admissions, welfare data, claims for
non-support o f child ren , hospital
and clinic admissions, drunken
driving citations and alcohol-related
motor vehicle fatalities.
They have focused on alcohol
consumption and child abuse,
howver,’ "because we got to that
part o f the puzzle fir s t,” says
Weeks. " T h e statistical analysis is
very, very com plicated, and it just
takes a long time to work through.”
Their research on alcohol consump
tion is funded by a $6,000 grant
from the National Institute on Alco
hol Abuse and Alcoholism.
Weeks indicated their w ork is
called "social ecology.”
" I t is essentially looking at these
communities as they exist w ithin a
broader ecology o f the wood p ro
ducts industry,” he explains. " W e
look at the com m unity its e lf as an
ecological system and try to appre
ciate how changes at one level pro
duce changes at another level, how
they produce various rip p le e f
fects.”
While official statistics are the ba
sis o f their studies, the U O research
ers find that anecdotal information
gives them insight on a human scale
into the effects o f the m ill closures.
The local barbershop is one such
source.
" I t is not uncommon to have sev
eral people in the shop at one time,
not w aiting fo r haircuts but just
passing the tim e o f d a y ,” says
Weeks. Conversations range from
discussions o f la id -o ff w orkers’
plans to study electronics at local
community colleges to a review o f
“ who had left fo r W y o m in g ” to
seek work.
"Listening to what they are talk
ing about can be very interesting,”
Weeks says. " I t ’s the in fo rm atio n
that gives texture to otherwise dry,
statistical data.”
H e personally visited eight com
m unities, looking at the m ills and
watching for inform al data such as
the number o f “ for sale” signs in
front o f homes and businesses.
Determining which public policies
might lessen the impact o f m ill clo
sures is the next step in the research
ers’ w o rk. They suggest the ways
policy makers respond to the crisis
facing these small Oregon commu
nities w ill be critical to the w ell
being o f the workers, their families
and the towns in which they live.
Frank Patera
Committee for Governor
Yamhill
OR 9 7 2 0 4
5005
FRANK PETERS
AN INDEPENDENT CANDIDATE
FOR GOVERNOR OF THE
STATE OF O R E G O N ...
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Note: The second p art o f this
series w ill deal with the public
policies which Weeks and Drengacz
believe could lessen the impact o f
m ill closures on Oregon’s small
towns.
Sharecropping on the Falklands
(Continuedfrom page / column 4)
d o n ’ t tell me the Kelpers have de
pal economic force in the w o o l-
mocracy. The farms arc run like lit
dominated economy, was pushing
tle kingdoms and the F IC owns half
B ritain tow ard a settlem ent for
o f everything.”
strictly monetary purposes. Coalite,
W hat Forrester was referring to
the London-based energy corpora
was the fact that the Falklands has
tion which owns F IC , was believed
always been treated as a private pro
to be eager for contracts for the re
f it d o m ain . M ost o f the land and
puted off-shore petroleum reserves. ! sheep belong to people who live in
A fte r all, commented Falkland leg- ( England.
Such absentee landlordism has
islative cou n cillo r A d ria n M o n k ,
" O il is their business, isn’t it.” The
bled the islands o f valuable mone
dispute over the island’s sovereignty
tary strength. Instead o f reinvesting
could jeo pard ize any contracts to
profits in their Falkland holdings,
extract oil.
owners have fattened their bank ac
Ironically, Argentina has argued
counts in the United Kingdom.
that the F IC was playing a m ajor
T he owners and managers are
role to in hibit any agreement. The
lords on the land: many double as
Buenos Aires daily C larín wrote in
justice o f the peace w ith power to
an editorial last year that "O n ly the
baptize and perform wedding cere
monopolistic interest o f the F IC im
monies; most serve as financial and
pedes the a rriv a l o f a legitim ate
tax advisers to their employees. A ll
agreement. W hat they fear most is
run company stores where workers
that th e ir reign w ill come to an
buy on credit.
end.”
A lth o u g h some islanders enjoy
Argentine officials like to point to
the security o f the system, this a l
the stranglehold that the F IC has
most total dependence on a country-
over the islands in countering Kelper
squire type management, combined
accusations that the Argentine m ili
with the unlikelihood o f buying into
tary government would deny them
the closed circle o f owners, has re
sulted in a severe emigration prob
their democratic traditions and civil
lem. It has also given the Argentines
rights.
another justification for their take
" W e d o n ’ t deny we have p rob
over.
lem s,” said Richard Forrester, an
Although the Kelpers are fanati
Argentine Foreign Ministry spokes
cally anti-Argentine, they know they
man, in an interview last year. “ But
are backed into a corner economi
cally and need development o f po
ten tial o il, fishing and tourist re
sources in order to pull out o f eco
nomic stagnation.
This could only be possible after
an agreement settling the sovereign
ty dispute.
T o further complicate the situa
tion, many Kelpers feel that w hat
ever is finally decided, they will be
the losers. Economic development
and an agreement w ith A rgentina
would signal the end o f the isolated
existence they so value. O il and fish
ing would bring in too many people
and too much instant money, both
o f which would ultimately threaten
their lifestyles and wildlife.
G iven their choice, the Kelpers
w ould p refer to push tim e back
ward, or at least halt it in its tracks.
Realizing that such a scenario was
highly improbable, Graham Bound
and his colleagues began pushing
for independence. Their hopes were
that while Argentina and England
persisted in their struggle over sov
ereignty, the Kelpers would come to
the realization that if anyone owns
the islands, they do.
In the wake o f the invasion, and
reported Kelper resistance, this real
ization might come sooner than the
young separatists anticipated.
Professional
Preference Curl
35°°
e
French Curl
35°°
© Pacific News Service, IW 2
We
yesterday,
Variety Salon
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